Who here remembers the 60s and 70s. The protests?

[murray hill farm]

Do you remember marching and protesting the war? Do you remember the risks we took to stand up and speak our minds and our values and our patriotism...and the consequences of those acts. Do you remember the filming of the protests by the FBI and CIA? And the the cameras were more on the participants than the speakers..and that we were all on lists. A recent thread on FBI watching this site...seems to not get it..that , of course this site is monitored. Do you remember? Can you tell these folks what it was like...and what it is like now to take a stand...and not be afraid to do it.

[Raven]

1. I remember, very well.

I was one of the original organizers of the "Dump Johnson" movement in the late 60's. And of course was a frequent guest of the Capitol Police on the Washington Mall during the 70's. I never, ever worried that what I was doing would get me into trouble with the FBI or any government agency. In those days, even in a Hoover FBI, we had the right to peacefully speak our minds. I know for a fact that the FBI has a file on me from back then but it has never bothered me...until now. In this day and age, I would be worried...I worry for my son...but it would never stop me.

[G_j]

9. yes even though

I know I also had my picture taken at some of those protests and may very well have had a 'file', I never worried about it.

In the last few years I've had my picture taken again many times at protests. It is much more prevalent now, our local police do it all the time, including license plates. I also correspond with a few 'well known' activists by email. I know I'm on some 'lists'.
I find the atmosphere more 'creepy' now, but it hasn't stopped me for a moment. These times are too crucial to sit back and watch if your heart tells you to do otherwise.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I do

Champaign-Urbana IL. Walking in a protest march alongside Quakers while we were jeered at by conservatives. Walking through a wall of State Troopers, all frowning. Going to protest meetings and having the FBI moles pointed out. Not taking part in violent protests, but innocently getting caught up in one. Never being able to talk with my step-father about Viet Nam and Kent State.

The FBI has known about me since my brother was investigated to get a higher security clearance while in the Army. It was scary because they knew everything about us-where we'd taken our vacation, what we did for fun, etc-I was maybe 10 at the time. But I'm not scared now-I'm older and know that the Constitution is worth protecting, despite any scare tactics.

[Xipe Totec]

3. No, We Were Counting Our Dead At Tlatelolco

In 1968 when the Mexican grenadiers surrounded the protesters in front of the presidential palace and massacred them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Yes. I remember that.

People forget the casualties of '68. Una cosa tragica. Un dio tragico.

[murray hill farm]

4. more.....

This was the time when John Kerry returned to the USA and led us..as many did to change the course of history..and to make our country great again. This was a time when the people stood up and challenged the distructive course of our nation...and it worked..IT WORKED...this was a time that we the people of a nation became a loud voice for change..and MADE our voice heard. This should be happening again today.

[Cheesehead]

5. Spent the late '60's in Madison, WI

I remember burning baricades in the streets, tear gas everywhere. Nose to nose with cops in riot gear. Students for a Democratic Society. Supporting the "Chicago Seven" and raising hell to end the war. The theme song was the Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers. "Up against the wall, motherfucker". It was not a game. It is very tame today by comparison.

[murray hill farm]

8. Madison..and the whole country

It was a time that changed the course of this country..and the world. A time of great hope...and great commitment and belief and great action for change. It has been spun over the years to be a time of "hippies"....so that no one today knows what it really was...a peaceful and dedicated belief in the goodness of the country..as led by the people who cared enough to speak and act to save it. I wish i could see that patriotism today.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. I was in Madison before & after Vietnam., out on the streets

in civil rights marches (peaceful candle light stuff on Langdon St.) before my time in 'Nam, then on the streets in the teargas, etc. after I got back in Jan. '69.

As to actually REMEMBERING it--well, bits & pieces. :hippie: :smoke: :crazy:

[nomatrix]

51. I remember my childhood more than my teens, Jack

I protested the war with Kerry.(photoshop Fonda/Kerry-insert me)
I was there on the Mall, in the millions, freezing my butt off trying to get warm, over an inferno trashbin at Nixon's innoguration.


Massachusetts radical myself. Something about growing up with all that history, from Plymouth to the Boston tea party, Paul Revere to JFK, you knew you could make a difference.

[maxsolomon]

6. my parents took me to a march when i was 8

in 1972 our catholic church joined the anti war movement! i remember thinking that there wouldn't be any more wars after that. if my parents were against it, it just didn't make sense anymore. and this is cincinnati, a conservative mecca, the only place where bush could theoretically speak in public.

that memory has always stuck with me & made me proud.

then both my parents voted for reagan twice, bush one twice, dole, and bush the dumber.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Anyone who isn't

afraid to do it is a fool or an agent provacutour. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't take a stand, only that to take a stand is always an act of courage because it is certainly dangerous.

I attended protests agaist the war. I got my ass kicked down the street by the SWAT team who wouldn't let me get up and run away but kept knocking me down. They were supposedly clearing the street, but they wouldn't let me clear the street.

Be careful out there!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. I remember having a camera shoved in my face a couple of times.

Both times by some crewcut "all American" type. And, being chased across campus by beefy cops determined to crack my skull. And, being stopped by a couple of cops for a "non-functioning" tail light, and being told my some midget of a cop that he'd just love for me to take a swing at him, (this while playing with his holstered gun) - if he only knew how much I DID want to deck his sorry ass.

The worst was when a bunch of us vets decked out in our dungarees, some in wheelchairs, were picketing the Federal Building in L.A.. The cops outnumbered us and were scared. Some, in cars were driving around and around the block and flashing their shotguns at us. Scared guys with shotguns are scary.

The best of times and the worst of times.

[murray hill farm]

11. Ohhhh Bandera

Wouldnt you love to see it again today!! What a difference it could make in the direction of our country!!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Yes. And, I wish I was 23 again and fleet of foot like I was then.

Getting a bit long in the tooth to be building barricades and getting a lung full of teargas.

[NMDemDist2]

23. amen Brother. I got arrested protesting GWI and those darn

plastic thingies they use now instead of handcuffs stink :smoke:

[RichardRay]

65. Hook knives

There are little tiny ones. Totally useless except for cutting string and little plastic thingies. Easy to conceal in the top of a shoe or under the waist band of a pair of pants. They make very short work of those plastic thingies. Requires adequate flexibility to get the little plastic thingie into the hook, but it's pretty much impossible to cut yourself (or anyone else) with one....

Richard Ray - Jackson Hole, WY

[NMDemDist2]

69. well except I had just left a lunch date with a friend and saw them

marching by and decided to join them

sure wasn't thinking "hook knives" when I got dressed that morning LOL

[NMDemDist2]

12. yes I was 13 in 1968 and remember watching the DNC on TV in

Chicago and weeping. Seeing the police take riot sticks to people that looked just like me.

I started taking the bus from Sacramento to Berkley almost weekly. Tear gas, wet t-shirts wrapped around my face, trying not to gag.
Thousands and thousands of us it seemed marching down University Ave and across the quad. Building and hanging out at People's Park. Seeing the Panthers in Oakland patrolling the streets of their communities.

Seeing the guys coming home from 'Nam mentally stressed and sometimes physically mutilated.

Marching with Cesar Chavez in the central valley and watching the farm owner's hired goons throwing the families out of the "worker" housing for asking for a fair wage. Whole families with little babies crying in the streets with they pitiful possessions strewn in the dirt.

don't be afraid, we brought down two sitting presidents and stopped a war. We started the education for fair treatment of farm workers. We started the environmental movement. We taught the power of boycotts.

Not bad for a bunch of long-haired hippy freaks huh?

[G_j]

17. and I sure am

glad you are still here with us in the 'struggle'!

It is so heartening to see folks like us still caring enough to work for that hopeful world we have always envisioned.

[murray hill farm]

18. Tell these youngins how its done..ha!

It takes a fire in the soul....a faith and belief that we the people are what this country is about..and a willingness to stand up to those who will take that away. It takes courage and fearlessness and just plain old action..but most of all i think it requires that fire in the soul. I so wish i could see that today.

[zanana]

56. I was in my first peace march when I was 13.

I didn't want my mother to know I was going, so I brought my books with me, like I was going to school. I thought I'd gotten away with it, but the next day when the paper came to our door, my face was on the front page!

[peacefreak]

14. I remember, too.

Did marches in Ct. & D.C. in the late 60's & early 70's. Would have hoped I wouldn't have to again in my 50's, but will if I have to. To me taking to the street or the voting booth is true patriotism. It all boils down to freedom of speech. I am not willing to let it slip away because of fear.

[kayell]

15. Ah yes, the invigorating aroma of tear gas. At least we were seen on the

nightly news. People actually knew that there were others out there saying things weren't right.

[AlinPA]

20. Students in university today are sedated sheep compared to the

students of the 60's and 70's.

[Mari333]

21. Yes, the Red Squad in Chicago, I remember the FBI well

when they came to my then boyfriend's house and started questioning us about being there.
I had no idea, at the time, what the mothers and fathers of the kids in Vietnam were going thru..
now, I do.

[mitchtv]

59. they came to our "commune" looking for Patty Hearst!

bwahahahaha

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. The students in France came within a hair of bringing down their

government. We were gross amateurs compared to them.

[murray hill farm]

24. So what is missing now..in 2004

a complicated question, I know..ha! Where is that fire in the soul that we had back in the 60s and 70s? Why isn't that kind of passion happening now! It is even worse now than it was then! Where is that fire...now it is all an intellectual exercise, it seems! And..hey..we, from the 60s and 70s are too old to go out and be the revolutionaries of today...i did the fight of the 60s, but now i am in my 60s..hahaha!! Help!!! Rise up, young Americans!!

[Cybergata]

26. I remember

...and I there are some young people at the University of New Mexico that have the same kind of passion as we did in the late 60s and early 70s. In fact some of my former students, now in high school or college, were out protesting before and after the war. They have inspired me & convinced me that the fires can be rekindled.

The numbers are smaller than they were by 68, but the people who started raising questions and organizing were small at first. Give this war some time, let there be a draft, and I would expect the fires of passion will burn in the youth of today. I have faith in them. :hippie:

[murray hill farm]

28. Thanks Cybergata

I needed to hear that...thanks!!

[ASanders84]

35. Ha, I hear ya

I'm a 19 year old college student and really I read stuff about the 60's & 70's and think to myself, why can't my generation have that much of a social conscience?

I guess it has to do with the whole "hippie" media brainwashing idea. It's too bad really.

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Yeah, Those Damn Hippies...

Spouting crazy ideas like peace and love. Advocating widespread social change. Practically inventing environmental awareness.

And that awful music! Gee-ah!

Thank god we now have corporate boardrooms that swiftly and effectively decree what people should be listening to.

Yes, it is truly a blessing that the media has given those nasty hippies, with their crazy ideas, their due.

</sarcasm off>

Hey, man, be the change you want to see in the world. It sounds cliched, but that's where it starts. Really. You may be surprised at how many other people feel the way you do.

[welshTerrier2]

38. the answer my friend

is not blowing in the wind ...

the answer is: THE DRAFT ...

nothing like being at risk of having your ass sent off to war to help one understand the linkage between the political process and one's personal well-being ...

of course, it would be nice if people, especially the young, could get motivated about making the world a better place without needing a "personal motivator" ...

but i don't blame the young people of today for not being as politically active as we were ... we need not create disunity on the left by dividing the generations like that ... the draft was a major component of the activism of the 60's and early 70's ... today's young folks will find a cause all their own when the necessity arrives ... and i fear it will arrive all too soon ...

and when it does, we old timers will stand with them ... i'm confident of that ...

[mitchtv]

58. you and me both, I don't want to have to do it again

veteran of SF state riots, Peoples' Park,Free Huey, the bombing lesbians of cole valley, the SF examiner riot, had my pic taken early on at Migra HQ. grafiti crews ( I am ready again) but would prefer to hire out of work gang members-I am 59+ yo. I was arrested at a demo against Macy's union Sq. helped take over the rolling stone mag, when Jan Wenner was a punk. Come on young ones , don't embarres us, we need to move into the new millenium. We need more Freeway bloggers!

[GliderGuider]

55. I was there, and it left an indelible mark

I was in the Sorbonne and the Latin Quarter in May of 1968. I saw the outrage of the students turn to anger and the anger turn to purpose. I was an outsider - a 17 year old Canadian kid visiting for a year - but I got into the middle of it with the tear gas and the rifle butts, and what I learned was the power of ideas coupled with cooperation. When a large group of people understand that their outrage is widely shared, and realize that acting on it has a chance to change the course of events, worlds can be moved.

It's the notion that common action can actually change events that makes things like this possible. This is why it's been so hard to mobilize people to face down this current crisis. We have been sold the idea that change is in the hands of others, that the forces at play are too large for us to influence. This is bullshit, of course. When half the population is convinced that things must change, anything is possible.

Two notes of caution are in order, though. As May progressed in Paris, I saw how a peoples' revolution can be co-opted and betrayed from the inside. The trade unionists were at first welcomed as brothers in arms, and they brought their formidable organizing skills to the struggle. However their goals were not those of the students, and when their demands were satisfied they pulled out and went home to celebrate their concessions. At that point the movement collapsed, the government stayed in power, and the students were bought off with cosmetic changes.

The other note of caution comes from the fact that in July of that same year I was in Prague, Czechoslovakia. I saw the same spirit and realizations there that I had seen in Paris. The fate of that revolution was sealed not from the inside as in Paris, but from the outside. I crossed the border from Czechoslovakia into Ukraine with my parents, and on the other side of the border we saw mile-long trains of flat-cars carrying the tanks that saw action two weeks later. While this isn't as much of a risk in the USA today, give * and his crew another four years, and anything is possible.

Now is the time. The people are waking up, they are recognizing the evil in their midst, and they are starting to believe in the possibility of change. Make it happen.

[SilasSoule]

25. Wow a DU'er expat living in Isla Mujeres???

Now that' what I call living life!!!

on edit: Beinvenidos a DU mexicoxpat!!!

[murray hill farm]

27. Yep..isla is a very fine place.

Do you know it...been here? It is heaven on earth..no, probably better...i was stranded in Mexico..in Cancun..during 911..came over to Isla Mujeres..and knew i was in my new home...bought a house..just a little one..moved here and have been here ever since.

[sattahipdeep]

29. I remember too Tears!

Sat Aug 14, 3:24 PM ET


By The Associated Press

HOUSTON - He was intimate with the counterculture in the 1960s and a
Texas prison in the 1980s. Now the current decade has prompted David
Crosby (news) to train his pen and his voice on corporate crime —
primarily Enron and its founder, Kenneth Lay.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=495&e=6&u=/ap/people_crosby

One lyric says: "These people that they stole
from whose lives they laid to waste/They
should meet them all face to face/And explain
just why their mama didn't teach them not to
steal/If you want us to believe in justice, justice
better be real."
_____________________________________



SOLDIERS OF PEACE

Soldiers of peace are not fighting a war
Are not looking for enemies behind every door
Are not looking for people to kill or to maim.
Soldiers of peace are just changing the game.

Men who were fighting for all of our lives
Are now fighting for children, for homes and for wives,
Fighting for the memory of all who fell before,
But the soldiers of peace just can't kill any more.

So come all you warriors who live for the fight,
Come listen to somebody, somebody who might
Have been there before you and they have the right,
They've been dying to tell you the score.
The old warriors don't want you to hurt any more.

Soldiers of peace can still hear the cries
When the people were screaming and losing their lives,
When bodies were broken and spirits were torn
The soldiers of peace do not want you to mourn.

So come all you warriors who live for the fight,
Come listen to somebody, somebody who might
Have been there before you and they have the right,
They've been dying to tell you the score.
The old warriors don't want you to hurt any more.

Soldiers of peace are not fighting a war.
No more, no more, no more, no more.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young "American Dream"

[BayouBengal07]

30. I'm only 19

But what I have seen is interesting, especially protestors waving North Vietnamese flags.

Please tell me none of you ever did that. I might disagree with my government, but I'd never root against my government in hopes that American soldiers get killed and a Communist government takes over.

[murray hill farm]

32. Dear only 19

no one hoped that American soldiers would get killed...and no matter how much we might hate communism or not hate communism, we do not, as a country, have the moral right, to tell another country to not be communist or whatever their economic system is at any given point in time....and we do not have that right today. you can disapprove of another's beliefs, but it their right to have them. If you saw people waving North Vietnamese flags, it is because they were saying just that...they have a right to their own way...and their own evolution to democracy...if that is their choice. America was founded on just that very belief..that we will choose our own destiny. we must give that right to others as well. We should never have been in Vietnam just as we should not be in Iraq today.

[Cybergata]

42. I wish Reagan had your beliefs in the 80s

I hated what the Reagan and later George Bush Senior administrations were doing to the people of Central America. When I went to protests at events with George Sr. or Reagan. there were only a few dozen of us out with protest signs. There probably were more police and government agents watching us than there were protesters. The agents were taking photos, and I often wonder if the reason I always get searched at airports has to do with those photographs. (Probably not since the first airport frisking I had was done in 1971 at O'Hara airport before I got on board a plane to Germany. I was only 19, but I looked about 15. I was stunned then, but now I always make a sure I ask them if they are frisking me because I'm a :hippie:)

Reagan did whatever could be done to over turn a popular government in Nicaragua. I am ashamed of this. I had friends who went to work in schools and hospitals in Nicaragua at the time. One taught mentally handicapped children & teens. She would drive a bus to pick up here students every day. Every day the Contras shot at her bus. They didn't go after the government. They went after the positive things the Sandinista government was doing. They attacked hospitals and schools. They destroyed the housing that was being built for the poor.

Then, dear George Senior! What was the need to go after Noriega of Panama? Indeed he was a nasty tyrants, but he was Bush's choice of nasty tyrant during his CIA days. I might find the whole thing very humorous if it weren't for all the innocent people in Panama who died because of this U.S. coop. The media didn't every bother to mention the mass graves of Panamanians. I hang my head in shame. I'm glad to see people protesting today, but I wish more people had done so during the Reagan-Bush days. :hippie:

Please excuse my mistakes. I've been working since 8:00 this morning and am dead tired.

[Warren DeMontague]

54. I cut my activist teeth in the 80s protesting Reagan & Bush I, and their

Central America related activities.

It seems to me that there was a much greater awareness and involvement among college age people back then, than there is now. I don't think it's particularly "cool" to be politically aware, involved, and active. Although the 80s "mainstream" was a cultural wasteland, there was a pretty solid and active counterculture back then -- much of what eventually became "alternative" music, before that word ceased to mean anything other than just another marketing tactic, grew out of the 80s and the scenes I describe. When I was in college, almost everyone I knew was pretty liberal, and pretty much actively opposed to Reagan and what he was up to. We were very involved and very disgusted with what was going on. I suspect (actually, I know) that the 90s fostered an attitude of "it doesn't really matter" in a lot of kids. I know many people a decade or so younger than me who, in 2000, had no clue how bad a Republican President Could be.. I was, like, "you don't know now... but you will". Add to this, the fact that corporate media and companies like clear channel have such a lock-down on what is peddled musically and culturally to kids, that they almost don't even have a chance to create and define an identity of their own. Just my take on it, of course, and present company is obviously excepted.. but I don't see particularly large numbers of teens or twentysomethings being passionate the way I and my peers were at that age.. I mean, we went bat-shit crazy over the first gulf war. If they had tried to do what they're doing now while we were in college, I guarantee the people I went to school with would have shut the place down.

[mitchtv]

60. to be precise the were NLF flagsNational Liberation Front

If a free election were ever allowed in VN Uncle Ho chi Minh would have won. We were lied to the domino theory was just that a theory. What we didn't realize was that VN was a war of national liberation, not int'l communiam. Once again the treaties were ignored andthe ham fisted gringos came in. Only 19, I wwill always support the self determination of indiginous peoples agains invading, colonial,and neo colonial occupiers, weather it is US or anyone else. Invasion always brings out resistance.

[SpiralHawk]

33. The only people i ever saw with those flags

were obvious agents provocateurs, and certified nut cases. What can you do? It's a big country, and we have "freedom of expression," theoretically. So I would not give any weight to the Viet flags. They were anomolies, not commonalities.

[Cybergata]

39. I sure didn't!

I think there was a lot of ignorance among those of us who protested in the 60s and 70s. One credit that must be given the younger organizers today is that they have seen our mistakes, and aren't repeating them. It helps that so many of us are still kicking today. We remember are mistakes, and are not repeating them either.

You have to remember, a lot of young people in those days identified with the cause of the Vietnamese. Their Declaration of Independence was basically a copy of the Declaration that Thomas Jefferson wrote. Their cause was just. They wanted to over throw the colonial bonds brought on by being a possession of France. In the beginning, the fore father of the CIA suggested we support them against France. Well....I won't go on with the History lesson. There are plenty of books that can do it better than I can. :hippie:

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Yes, please read up on the history of Vietnam

Cybergata has it right. Ho Chi Minh worked with the US during WWII.. (Interesting, isn't it, how most of the "monsters" we end up fighting come right out of the basement of our own castle?) As said above, he quoted from the Declaration of Independence when proclaiming Vietnam's independence at the end of WWII. Well, we were more interested in making sure that the french, who were, after all, white people, got their colonial "property" returned to them-- and since we had just saved their butts from the Nazis, we were obviously in no position to tell them to shove off.. So we returned Vietnam to the French- but here's the kicker.. The french weren't prepared to come back immediately and administer Vietnam, so we allowed the Japanese (whom the Vietnamese had just helped us beat, and whom the Vietnamese had a longstanding hatred for) administer the country until the French got back! Nice, huh? Well, the Vietnamese kicked the French out, and under Geneva accords signed at the end of that conflict, Vietnam was partitioned, obstensibly temporarially, with elections to be held in 1956. Except, with the backing of the Eisenhower Government, the "Democratic" rulers of South Vietnam did not allow the scheduled elections to take place, clearly because Ho Chi Minh was popular enough to walk away with them, in the entire country.. So, from the outset, the Vietnam war was a completely anti-democratic endeavour, based on lies, deception, and imperialism.

I would recommend doing some research about the conflict. Lots of good books exist about the war, the protests back home, and the times in general. It's fascinating, particularly in light of what we're experiencing today.

[BayouBengal07]

49. Yes, I know

I'm currently reading Vietnam: A History, the Pulitzer Prize winning history of the war that PBS used in its American Experience program, and that has been called "The Bible of all general Vietnam histories." I know all about Ho Chi Minh and his committment to anti-colonialism and his reverence to our revolution and institutions.

All I'm saying is that it's like today when protestors block traffic or break windows- thats NOT going to convince people of the goodness of your side. I don't think people will suddenly join your camp if you wave the North Vietnamese flag everywhere.

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Well, I'm with you pretty much...

I think you've got a good sense of things from that perspective.

I agree with you. I had an argument before the big anti-Iraq war protests in SF with a kid I used to know through work who is just a few years older than you. He's passionate, committed, but a little too strident-- much like myself at that age. Well, we had a big debate about what he called the "actions" that he thought might take place after the protest.. i.e. the activities of that small band of yahoos who do exactly what you're describing. My attitude was, look, those people are assholes, and they give the vastly larger number of peaceful demonstrators a bad name, and they allow the media to maginalize the voices of everyone who is opposed to this thing. They should stay the fuck at home rather than give the rest of us a black eye. (As someone pointed out elsewhere in the thread, in the 60s many of those people were provocateurs working for the FBI) Well, I don't know if this guy ended up being one of the idiots on Market street or not, but what I predicted was exactly what happened. 100,000 people- myself included- peacefully demonstrated in San Francisco. About 200 shouting, drooling freeps came out to represent the other "viewpoint". And about 50 idiotic kids went down to market street afterwards and broke a few windows and spraypainted mailboxes to "stick it to the man". ("The man", of course, ends up being the poor shmoe making $6 an hour who gets to sweep up the broken glass) So, what do you think the news did? They gave 5 minutes to the 100,000 people who peacefully protested, 5 more minutes to the 200 drooling freeps, and then 20 minutes to the yahoos breaking windows and stopping traffic. I have absolutely no patience for those people. It's a Nader voter mentality, really-- people more obsessed with maintaining what they think is their "cred", or playing wannabe revolutionary, than effecting real, realistic change. I'm completely with you on that.

But this situation isn't Vietnam, and while there were excesses around Vietnam protests, I'm not sure you can separate the vietnamese flag-wavers --as dumb a PR move as that may have been-- from the larger history of that war. I haven't seen anyone opposed to the Iraq war waving an Iraqi flag, for instance.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

46. I had a VC flag with a peace symbol rather than a star.

Sorry to disappoint you. But, we weren't rooting for American soldiers to get killed, we wanted to get them out and let the Vietnamese decide what kind of government they wanted.

[DebJ]

64. Note this: Russian communism fell; we didn't attack Russia

We did send troops into Viet Nam; you see the results there!

[Bjornsdotter]

31. Yes...1971 was the first time....

...I was sent home from school for not "going with the flow". I was in 5th grade and our teacher was talking about the war, I raised my hand and said "I didn't think we should be there"....boom, a phone call to Mom and I was sent home for the rest of the day.

Later that same week I was sent home for wearing a "War is not healthy for children or other living things" t-shirt. That same year I was sent home with about 50 other girls who refused to wear skirts to school; instead we wore pants....horrors!

I knew then I marched to a different beat...and still do!

Cheers,
Kim :toast:

[welshTerrier2]

34. i was a "peace marshal"

it was may, 1970 and nixon was bombing Cambodia ... students took over campuses all over the country ... i volunteered to be a "peace marshal" on the campus of syracuse university where i was a student ...

the deal was that we had to toss anyone who wasn't a student off the campus ... the university was afraid non-students would incite riots; we were afraid of cops and fbi disguising themselves as students ...

i overheard a guy on a pay phone who sounded like a cop ... and he had the sure sign of an fbi agent: he had shiny black shoes ... students did not wear dress shoes on the campus ... so i followed this guy after he completed his phonecall ... he walked across the campus into one of the buildings just opposite the administration building that had been taken over by students ... i knew i was on to something ... the guy went up to the second floor into a classroom and closed the door behind him ... i waited about five minutes and then entered the room ... i was greeted with about 5 blinding camera flashes ... they apparently found me photogenic ...

i asked to see their student ID badges ... "get the fuck out of here if you know what's good for you" ... i told them they had to leave the campus if they couldn't produce ID badges ... they "escorted" me out of the room and locked the door ... no problem ... i found a guy (i think he was an assistant dean) with a loudspeaker who was trying to convince students to leave the administration building ... i told him there were fbi guys in a nearby building ... i lead him, with a couple of reporters who were there, back to the classroom building ... to make a long story short, those fbi guys packed up all their camera equipment and left the campus ... they clearly wanted nothing to do with the press ...

back then, many of us believed the revolution was about to begin ... at many demonstrations, there was a sense that you were putting your life on the line ... you never knew how the cops or national guard were going to react ... but you knew they hated all those long-haired pinko students ... eventually the left became very fragmented and the revolution collapsed, but that's a tale for another post ...

[kohodog]

36. Passing a joint between cars at 65 mph...

on I95 on the way to Washington to protest, with signs "Washington or Bust!" Moratoriums, sit-ins. We ruled the world, or at least it felt like that at 16. But we did start to change the world then and we will now. The other world power IS the people and now we are global!

Power to the people!

[mitchtv]

37. Hi again Mexicoxpat

yes I remember , from the inside of a jail at times. a march on the Park Station in Haight Ashbury was a dangerous one, a raid on the page St palace. I will have to return to this post later. gotta see real time I missed friday nite. see ya

[Raenelle]

40. Old Robin Williams' joke--if you remember the 60s, you weren't

really there.

Actually, I do remember the 60s--combo rock concerts and protests, and police infiltration, and sewing up your pockets so nothing could be planted on you. Mostly, I just remember how very, very angry I was, how the entire "establishment" seemed to exist in that old parallel universe.

It's not as bad now. There's some hope. Back then, it was the Dems, the liberals, who were taking us to war. And you knew the Repubs would be worse. It didn't seem like there was any point in voting, in participating in the system. Now, if they don't rig the frikking thing, at least the worst abuses will end when Kerry is elected.

[TankLV]

41. I remember it like yesterday - and I wasn't involved as some.

Smelled the tear gas a couple miles away in our home.

What an ungly mess it all was.

Thought we had changed everything for the better - but the cockroaches just went back into the walls to slowly and methodically undo everything we struggled for, so now it has come full circle.

Eternal vigilance is the answer - and us 50+ year olds are getting awfully tired now.

[mulsh]

44. Grammar school SDS

I helped start the only grammar school chapter of the SDS back in the late 60s. I marched in the big moratorium marches, there are photos of me and my twin brother digging up People's Park the first day we started planting things. I was a prebubescent shit disturber fer sure. I got my FBI file when the FOIA was first enacted thanks to a rad lawyer neighbor. I remember spotting guys with cameras on roof tops in SF and Berkeley at the time and at every other march I've ever been in. Fuck em, its my country too, that's why I continue to vote in every election.

[redstateblues]

45. Marched At Maddox Inaguration In Atlanta 67- We Had A Coffin

and a sign that said "The Death Of the New South". I made the NBC news that night. Not exactly what my mom had in mind for my freshman year at Emory!!

[Radical Activist]

47. I remember it from last year

I remember the local police going by and filming protests I helped organize. I remember the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation sending an agent to another protest I organized. I remember another police force sending uncover agents to infiltrate a peace group I belong to. I don't have to remember the 60's. It's happening now, and I don't give a shit. The FBI can go fuck themselves. I will continue. I will dissent.
Bring it on hoover! Bring it on Ashcroft! I will continue to resist!

[Vadem]

48. Yes, indeed, I remember! I was out on the streets of DC with...

my two sons, ages 5 and 8, protesting Nixon, (and Johnson), and the Viet Nam War where my brother was under siege in Khe Sahn. I have pictures of my sons sliding down the Lincoln Memorial marble banisters along the marble steps and also pictures of the protesters wearing Nixon masks and signs declaring that Tricky Dick's father should have pulled out just as we needed to pull out of Viet Nam.

[kittykitty]

50. I remember sit-ins at Berkeley, and marching in San Francisco and

the "pigs", but never feared doing it, nor participating in anything. The Port Chicago Vigil, where munitions were shipped out to Viet Nam. There was freedom on those days. Not political events, but The Gathering of the Tribes in Golden Gate Park, and Ken Kesey's "Human Be-In' at the Long Shoreman's Hall in San Francisco about 1966. Those were the days, and I'd trade anything to go back to that world.

[mitchtv]

61. although we never met. kittykitty

I'm sure I sat next to youat some event. I saw Jane Fonda at an event in Glide memorial

[F.Gordon]

57. The FBI and the SDS

Had two encounters with the FBI back then. One was a result of a little propaganda "prank" I pulled (yes, I was a cynical bastard even in my youth) and the other was drugs.

The FBI could investigate anyone who protested the War. If you protested the War you might be a member of the SDS. And if you were a suspected member of the SDS then you might be part of the Weathermen group. It was the same loose connection back then as it is today. Protest the War? You must be anti-American. A terrorist.

I only witnessed 3 violent clashes back then and they were all started by pro-War people. I had one guy take a swing at me once, but he was so drunk it was easy to avoid. Had another guy pull a knife and motion a throw. I found a cop and had him arrested, but since I couldn't "identify the knife" (the police laid 3 knifes on a table and asked me which one was it) they let the asshole go.

I remember one protest in Iowa City where the National Guard setup a fucking machine gun nest to protect the Police Station. I guess they thought we were going to take over the entire town and the last line of defense was the Police Station.

I always blamed the police and national guard for creating an "atmosphere of violence". Their very presence suggested that we were violent wackos, but they were the ones that "pushed" the violence. Instead of just letting the protest go on peacefully, they tried to push our buttons...

[murray hill farm]

62. And it felt so good, didnt it?

We had such hope and trust and belief in what we were doing. We believed we could make a difference in our country...and we did..we made a hugh difference in our country...and not just in ending the war. I wish i could somehow box how that felt and give it to the young folks today. It feels good!! There may be no better feeling than to stand up for what you believe..and in the belief that you can change things for the better.....and the parties were good too..hahahaha!!! And that feeling that you were a part of something with so many, many others that you were marching as one for your country. Thanks for all these great responses...i have really enjoyed reading them all. Lots of us old hippies still hanging in there and wanting what we always wanted for our country...now, i guess we just want it back again.

[BillZBubb]

63. Worst night of my life:

Rounded up in D.C. during a march in Washington in the May, 1970(?). Placed in a 2 man cell with thirteen others for almost 24 hours. Standing room only. One guy had been clubbed in the head and was bloody and moaning the whole time. We tried to get the cops to get a doctor to look at him. They just laughed.

It was hell on earth in there--thank goodness it didn't last longer.

Would I do it again: YOU BET! We were right.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

66. "Young wolves, show us your teeth."

John Steinbeck said that to young Russian students when Brezhnev was repressing the USSR.

Where are our young wolves?

[DebJ]

67. I was 12 in 1968, outside Washington, D.C. My dad worked

in D.C. The affect upon me, growing up at a critical time period in my life and in the country, the affect of seeing protests constantly, was to BE PROUD THAT AMERICANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTEST THEIR GOVERNMENTS ACTIONS, AND PROUD THAT AMERICANS WOULD GET UP AND DO SOMETHING WHEN THEY SAW THE NEED.
My husband and I have attended two protests in the past year: we drove from Pennsylvania to D.C. to protest the war with MoveOn. And in June, we protested Bush outside of his rally in York. We also went to the Kerry rally. IT'S A RUSH JUST TO BE STANDING ON THE STREET, STANDING UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. IT'S A RUSH TO BE SURROUNDED BY OTHERS WHO FEEL THE SAME. TRY IT; YOU WILL LIKE IT!

[TrogL]

68. I've just been thinking over the last year...

Here we go again.

Yes, I do remember the 60's clearly. They were the backlash to the mindboggling repressive 50's when the empty-headed conservatives were in charge and bound and determined to turn everybody else (especially me) into their clones.

If your wife wasn't a Stepford wife she was supposed to be beaten. If your child wasn't a leave-it-to-Beaver clone, he was supposed to be whipped with a belt or you had the police on your doorstep asking why you weren't disciplining your wife and kids.

They want to take us back to the 50's. We're almost there now.

So....

:bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce:

we get to do the 60's all over again!!

:bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce:
:bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce:
:bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce::bounce::party::bounce:

[Ani Yun Wiya]

70. Indeed.

Yes, I remember.

Refusing to pledge allegiance in '63, because of the war.
Marches in NYC.
Marches in Boston.
The '68 Convention in Chicago.
Being faced with a pig on a horse in SF. Lucky me the 4' metal baton was not well aimed.
While in dress greens, at the Pentagon, setting alight an oppressor's flag.


I too wonder why the streets have not been filled with continuous protest.

The saddest image that I have seen since * and crew took over is that of the lone protestor at the Supreme Court on 12/12/00.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

71. ...tin soldiers and nixon coming .........4 dead in OHIO

:cry:

[xxqqqzme]

72. My mother-in-law

was working w/ the American Friends Society in DC and we were on guam from '68-'72. Every piece of information passed on 2 me was passed on 2 her. We were not military but many in the military took classes @ the U of Guam, where my X taught. Once guys, Navy & AF, knew I sent info along to the Friends, I had all kinds of people telling me all sorts of details.